REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 21 



tion of 1,132 insects from the European Parasitic Laboratory in 

 France; 14,000 miscellaneous specimens collected in western China 

 by Dr. D. C. Graham; nearly 1,100 beetles from the British Museum; 

 15,000 Chrysomelidae from the Bowditch collection, by exchange 

 with the Museum of Comparative Zoology; and valuable donations 

 from the private collections of Father Edward Guedet (598 Lepi- 

 doptera and Coleoptera), A. B. Gurney (400 Ecuadorean Blattidae), 

 and David G. Hall (3,700 muscoid flies). 



The collections of marine invertebrates were notably augmented 

 during the year by reason of the Presidential cruise of 1938 (more 

 than 10,000 specimens) and the Bartlett Greenland expedition of 

 1938 (400 specimens). About 80,500 mollusks were added, includ- 

 ing an important lot purchased through the Frances Lea Chamber- 

 lain fund and containing cotypes of 139 species of Chinese fresh- 

 water mussels of the Heude collection. About 40,000 mollusks were 

 received from the Tennessee Valley Authority. The United States 

 Biological Survey transferred 2,232 specimens of mollusks from 

 Alaska. 



About 50,500 plants were added to the herbarium collections, the 

 largest lot being 11,000 specimens collected from little-known parts 

 of Colombia by E. P. Killip of the Museum staff. 



Geology. — Important additions to the mineralogical and petrolog- 

 ical series were made possible by several Smithsonian funds. Among 

 many purchased through the Koebling fund was a 153-pound topaz 

 crystal from Brazil, as well as several rare minerals from classical 

 European localities. Several fine suites came through the Canfield 

 fund, the most important of which contains the finest phenacites, 

 fluorites, aquamarines, and other minerals from Mount Antero, Colo. 

 Through the auspices of the Chamberlain fund there were procured 

 unusually cut specimens of topaz from Brazil and zircon from French 

 Indochina. Forty-two meteorite specimens, 26 of which are credited 

 to the Roebling fund, were added during the year. These represented 

 25 falls new to the Museum collection. 



The largest and most important accession in the field of strati- 

 graphic paleontology was the gift by John M. Nickles of his collection 

 of Paleozoic fossils from the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. This 

 collection, containing about 10,000 specimens, largely bryozoan, rep- 

 resents many years of search and contains a wealth of excellent and 

 carefully labeled material including many types. Two collections 

 were made for the Museum by Dr. G. Arthur Cooper — one, num- 

 bering over 5,000 specimens, representing the Ordovician of the 

 southern Appalachians, and the other comprising an equally large 

 assemblage of Devonian fossils from the Hamilton group of the 

 Catskill foothills in Pennsylvania. 



